Higher Diploma in Education Primary
The Higher Diploma (Primary Teaching) is a full time eighteen-month course held in the Froebel College of Education for persons with third-level degrees. The course enables third-level graduates to train as primary teachers. Persons who successfully complete this course will be recognised by the Department of Education and Skills as fully trained teachers for employment in any class in Primary Schools.
UPDATE 23 January 2012: The letters of offer for places in the course beginning February 2012 have been sent out.
If you wish to receive an application packet from Froebel College for the 2013-2014 H.Dip course, please send your contact details including your postal address by email to admissions@froebel.ie. We are able to send out application packets only after the course and the entry requirements have been sanctioned by the Department of Education and Skills. Thus, if the course is permitted to proceed again next year, we may hear from the Department of Education and Skills in November or December of 2012 that the competition is open again, with classes at Froebel College beginning in February of 2013.
To help those who have already applied, we will leave the following documents on the website until the selection process for this year's group has been completed. For the Dublin Centre, which coordinates the competition for Froebel College, St Patrick's Drumcondra, and Marino Institute of Education, the interviews and oral Irish Test for eligible applicants will be held on Monday, 16th and Tuesday, 17th January 2012. Candidates will be allocated a set date and time; regrettably, there is no flexibility to change the set date and time. Interview letters will be posted early in the New Year. If you do not receive a letter by 12th January, you should immediately contact St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, which coordinates applications for the Dublin Centre.
Advertisement of the course in the national newpapers
Important Notice for all applicants
Foirm Iarratais
Riachtanais Iontrála na Gaeilge
Cover Letter from Froebel College Admissions Office
English Application Form
Department of Education and Skills Entry Requirements and Procedure for 2012
Criteria for General Interview
Treoir do mharcáil na scrúduithe i labhairt na Gaeilge
Froebel College 2012 Brochure
Information on College Fees
Appeals Procedure
Próiseas Achomhairc Iontrálacha
The entrance requirements are set for all Colleges of Education offering this course by the Department of Education and Skills. The following description of these requirements is taken from the Department's website.
See Entry requirements and Procedures document above
Applicants are selected on the basis of qualifications and interview. Interviews are held in arrangement with the Department of Education and Skills and the Colleges of Education prior to the commencement of each course. An oral Irish interview is also conducted with applicants. Details and times of interviews are communicated to applicants on receipt of the completed application form. For the Dublin Centre, the interviews for the course begining in February 2012 will be held on Monday, January 16th, and Tuesday, January 17th, 2012. It is not possible to change the assigned interview time.
The number of places available annually is set by the Department of Education and Skills according to its estimates of the need for primary school teachers in the future. These places are then distributed among the Colleges of Education receiving graduate students. Applicants in the first instance apply to the College of their choice. Places are allocated to successful applicants according to the applicants' choice and the availability of places. The places in the teacher training programmes will be allotted to those who receive the higher scores in the order of merit, with those scoring highest receiving their first choice of College of Education. Those candidates who just have just enough points to receive one of the last places may be offered a place in their first choice of College of Education. However, if the quota for that institution is already full, they would then be offered a place in their second or third choice College.
Like the degree of Bachelor in Education (B.Ed), the Higher Diploma in Education (Primary) is a professional qualification which provides for the academic and professional requirements of primary school teachers. For the next two years, starting in February 2011, the H.Dip course will be taught exclusively on the Froebel Blackrock campus. Students will register and have their degrees accredited by NUI Maynooth, with whom Froebel College have announced a partnership in April 2010. All new H.Dip students will have full access to the libraries and facilities on both the Froebel Blackrock and on the NUI Maynooth campus.
In September 2013, Froebel College will move from its Blackrock campus to a new, purpose-built Froebel Education Centre on the NUI Maynooth campus.
As this is a postgraduate course of studies, fees are payable for this course. The Department of Education and Science determine the fees for each course. The tuition fees for the first semester of the course from February to June 2012 will be €2782.
In addition to tuition fees, there are once off fees of €100 for the curriculum books, and €275 for teaching materials. These are due only for the first semester, and thus the total fees for the first semester could be €3157.
The tuition fee for the following two semesters will depend on the fees as set by the Department of Education and Skills during the spring or summer of 2012.
A minimum of 14 weeks of school experience is incorporated into the Higher Diploma Course. Students who do not achieve satisfactory competence in teaching practice may be offered supplementary or repeat placements. External examiners from the University and the Department of Education and Science moderate students' final teaching practice.
The evaluation of work for the Higher Diploma involves a combination of continuous assessment assignments, oral examinations, seminar presentations and written examinations.
- Arts Education (Visual Arts, Drama, Music)
- Educational Psychology, including Child Development
- English
- English Methods
- History of Education
- ICT
- Inclusive Education (Special Education Needs, Educational Disadvantage, Intercultural Education)
- Irish
- Irish Methods
- Mathematics
- Mathematics Methods
- Philosophy of Education
- Physical Education
- Professional Development
- Religious Education
- Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE)
- Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE)
- Sociology of Education
- Teaching Practice
All courses in the H.Dip. programme between September 2010 and September 2013 will be taught on the Froebel Blackrock campus. After September 2013, all courses will be taught in the Froebel Centre for Early Childhood and Primary Education on the NUI Maynooth campus.